Judge looks back as she retires from Court of Criminal Appeals
Clancy Smith has retired as a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Her last day on the state’s highest court for criminal matters was Wednesday.
“It is the best job I have ever had,” she said of working on a court that decides about 1,200 cases a year.
She is a former Tulsa County district judge, special judge and teacher.
“The hardest job I have ever had is being a district judge in Tulsa County with a felony criminal docket,” she said. “That is just work from 8:30 a.m. until 6 or 6:30 p.m. and even longer if you have a jury out.”
Smith, 74, was appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals by then Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice James Edmondson after then Gov. Brad Henry recused. In 2010 she was sworn in.
Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Gary L. Lumpkin said Smith invigorated the court with her zest for life, energetic engagement in the interpretation of law and talent for bringing people together.
“Every day, you just get to sit around and discuss legal issues with really smart people,” Smith said of her tenure on the appellate court.
As a Court of Criminal Appeals judge, she has seen all manner of crime, including those crimes for which a person is sentenced to death.
“Everybody gets attention, but because it is a person’s life, (a capital case) gets more scrutiny and it always gets oral argument,” she said. “I just think as a general rule, you are even more careful with it to make sure all of the proceedings were so fair.”
She has a philosophy about the law.
“If it is a close call, it goes to the defendant because you are taking away somebody’s liberty,” she said. “And you have to get it right. I don’t think I am soft on crime. I think I am hard on trial.”
There are a lot of cases she still thinks about.
One is about a perpetrator whom no one would have any sympathy for. But during the course of the judicial proceedings, she learned that he never had a chance based on his life circumstances.
“He was getting ready to go the penitentiary for life, and I thought ‘This is somebody’s child up here,’ ” Smith said.
And there are those who come to court and have family sitting in the front row while others have no one, she said.
She said she would try to talk the defendants out of being criminals.
“I had these long talks with them that didn’t do any good, I am sure,” she said.
The job also had its perils, including life-threatening emails from those upset with some of the decisions.
“Everybody is a lawand-order person,” Smith said. “Everybody wants the rule of law. They never understand why a case gets reversed or something like that.
“I always try to say ‘Look, I want to be the kind of judge you would want for your child.’ Nobody gets as interested in you being fair to the defendant until it is their family or them. Then, they want somebody who is fair. They don’t particularly want you to be fair to somebody else.”
But being a judge can also be rewarding, she said.
“I think the most rewarding thing that ever happened to me is probably three or four times a year, somebody stops me on the street and says, ‘You were my judge, and you gave me a chance. I have gone straight and I had a good life, and I want to thank you,’” she said. “And I get letters that say that.”
Smith graduated from Hugo High School in 1960. She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Oklahoma State University in 1964. She taught English at Memorial High School in Tulsa and in Jacksonville, Florida.
She received a law degree from the University of Tulsa in 1980 and was in private practice for 14 years before being appointed a special district judge in 1994. She was appointed district judge in 2005.
Smith is the mother of two children and grandmother of four. She plans to spend more time with her family.
“I made a commitment over Memorial Day weekend that I was going to make every day count,” Smith said. “How that works out, I don’t know. There are a lot of ways to make a day count. But I guess the one thing I didn’t want to do at the end of day is think I didn’t accomplish anything.”